Disturbed is a hard rock/metal band that is not new, but not old either. They were originally call Brawl before they obtained their new singer David Draiman. Draiman suggested that the band change their name to Disturbed because of the music they were playing and the way they felt. Disturbed has a mascot they call “The Guy”, which was fully animated by Todd McFarlane, the creator of Spawn. The band was encouraged and influenced by bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Pantera, and Judas Priest, according to singer David Draiman. Draiman also considers the band to be more classic metal than hard rock. These key parts of the band along with their feelings and day to day life experiences paint a dark, eye opening, and realistic picture of of events that could, are, or have happened. Disturbed’s song “Façade” contains a lot of imagery through the use of metaphors, hyperboles, and realistic suffering.
The line “Shattered doll…” shows a metaphor in which the women is compared to a shattered doll because of her physical appearance. The line “Oh so innocent and delicate” adds emphasis to her fragile nature and the idea of physical abuse. The fact that she is too “obstinate to let go” shows that she has trapped herself into an abusive relationship. The almost paradoxical part is that the song describes a shattered doll as being delicate because smaller pieces of a doll are a lot harder to brake, but a doll that has shattered must be delicate. This creates an image of a beaten woman that has a hopeless, almost suicidal, look, that is like a Cinderella, only without the wanting to get away.
The song states that the woman finds it “just too difficult and arduous to let go”. This is a hyperbole used to show that she can’t mentally or emotionally leave the man she loves, but she won’t allow her physical suffering to overcome that. “Her eyes encircled in black again”, shows the amount of repetition of her abuse and depicts an image of dark purple rings around the woman’s eyes. The line “Broken down, hurt again, it never ends”, shows the consistancy and seemingly endless nature of the woman’s beatings, but eventually the beatings would have to end. The description “Frightened and trembling”, creates an image of shakey knees and skittishness in the depicted woman, as well as wide sunken eyes. The sarcastic line “Did she fall again? An accident?”, is a representation of the excuses that many battered woman give, as well as the men they are with, out of embarrassment in order to mask the beatings that they receive. This makes me think of the battered women’s groups and articles about battered women because of their fear to stand up for themselves and go to these places, just like the woman in the song.
The biggest object of the song that I notice is the word Façade. The narrator talks about how the woman keeps trying to hold her relationship together and then asks her in his mind “How long until you walk away?”. The narrator also states the the woman cannot “disguise the fact that you’re in misery”. The word façade has to do with hiding something unpleasant with a frontal mask or showy representation. This is what the narrator is trying to convey with the line “The world will see that she’s had enough”. He is trying to say that she is struggling to stay afloat and is reaching her breaking point. Her suffering is going to eventually going to reach a climax, according to the narrator, in the line “She’ll find her freedom in killing him”. This is ironic because killing isn’t usually associated with freedom. This pinnacle of her suffering will break her façade and change her image into one of anger, hope, determination, hatred, strength, vengence, and understanding. It creates an image of the woman’s exact opposite and brings about images of a woman killing her husband. The narrator wants her to end her suffering by taking control and acting on her feelings of homocide, but in doing so she would add to the paradox of the songs title. She is hiding her suffering through a mask of love and a web of lies and is trying very hard to become happy, but she can only become happy by removing the very things that she protects so heavily, the source of her suffering. This makes sense and adds to her suffering by adding mental stress and instability as well as a way towards happiness and freedom.
Disrurbed does a magnificent job of expressing the suffering of an abused woman through poetic devices. The imagery throughout the song builds to its pinnacle then flips completely at the end. The song title of “Façade” is well used and is just like the bands mascot, The Guy. The Guy appears evil and dark, but this is just to mask his heroic nature and fight against evil with the despair that he holds and the suffering that the world has put him through. The classic metal bands would be proud of Disturbed in their fight against conformity and their dpictions of the evils of the world. David Draiman was right to have the band change its name to Disturbed. Brawl appears to show the iolent nature of the world, while Disturbed shows the emotional seed that the world eventually plants in all of us and feeds like cattle to the slaughter.
"Façade" : By Disturbed
No one knows just what has become of her
Shattered doll, desperate
Oh so innocent and delicate
But too damn obdurate
And obstinate to let go
Broken down, hurt again, it never ends
Frightened and trembling
Did she fall again? An accident?
Her eyes encircled in black again
I can't believe that she's still with him
For how long will you try?
How long until you walk away?
Your façade can't disguise
The fact that you're in misery
Look inside see what has become of her
Hiding within again
Can she pick herself up again?
It's just too difficult and arduous to let go
Homicide flashes through her mind again
No more pain, take control
If he raises his hand again
She'll find her freedom in killing him
The world will see that she's had enough
For how long will you try?
How long until you walk away?
Your façade can't disguise
The fact that you're in misery
For how long will you try?
How long until you walk away?
From the look in your eyes
I know you bleed internally
For how long will you deny?
How long until you walk away?
Your façade can't disguise
The fact that you're in misery
For how long will you try?
How long until you walk away?
From the look in your eyes
I know you bleed internally
Broken down, hurt again
It never ends
